Thursday, October 31, 2013

F This Movie! - The Friday the 13th Franchise

Scary Movie Month ends as P-p-p-p-Patrick and Ma-ma-ma-ma-Mike go to summer camp. 10 times.


Download this episode here. (39.8 MB)

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Also discussed this episode: Psycho II (1983), Sinister (2012), Twixt (2011)

24 comments:

  1. Oh, sweet. I did this last year. I started out really strong, then by the end I was really angry at everyone involved (though I appreciated the differences in Jason X). I also watched the retrospective His Name Was Jason and resented that too, but yet still love the franchise and still love Jason. Why? I don't know.

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  2. Part 3 is far and away my favorite of the entire series. It's the first appearance of hocky mask Jason, the biker gang, Shelly, handstand death, eye popping death, 3-D, Tommy Chong look-alike, what's not to enjoy? I love that movie.

    I think I'm going to call Jason Takes Manhattan as my least favorite. It's been a while, but it's lame, as far as I can remember

    Great podcast, guys! I regret not being able to revist more of these this Halloween season, but I still enjoyed the conversation.

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    1. Thanks, John!

      Also, I was going to mention the handstand death. It's BRUTAL.

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    2. That particular death (or kill, or whatever you want to call it) stands out to me. I rewatched it on YouTube, and yes, indeed, it is quite brutal. And I like the eye popping death becasue it's so hilariously and obviously fake.

      I think Patrick was really on to something when he noted how much fun the movie is. To me, if none of these movies are going to be particularly "good," the LEAST they can be is fun, and I think Part 3 accomplishes that goal the best. It's one of the reasons it was a great choice for an F This Movie! commentary track.

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  3. I haven't listened to the podcast yet (sure it's great) but just wanted to say one thing, SMM isn't over yet.

    We got to hit that 1,500 goal. Do it for that Dad who let you stay up late watching Monstervision, do it for that sick little girl who's possessed by a demon who as she was being exorcised said "please mister or misses couldn't you just watch a few more horror movies cough cough"

    Remember people we still have 12 hours left (or maybe more depending on your time zone) now let's go out there and sit on our couches and watch the television, who's with me!!

    In all seriousness though guys it's been a fun month and I am glad to have done it. Too bad there's not enough good Thanksgiving movies for November to do. If you did do it would just be multiple variations on Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.

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    1. I personally plan to watch Home for the Holidays every single day of November.

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    2. Don't forget that Free Birds is coming out this November.

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  4. Great discussion, guys.
    Still I have to say that the only two movies I can say I like are Part 3 and Jason X. And that's with not taking Part 3 seriously. Unless Jason has discovered some magic formula for instantly removing blood from carpets (the handstand kill) in which case he belongs on QVC.
    The frustrating part about the rest is that each of them has at least one bit they do well. Even Jason Takes Manhattan has the billboard.
    Another thing about Shelly's encounter with Jason, not only does it happen off screen but Shelly gets away from him. Every other victim until Rick gets tucked away like Jason's a pack rat. Shelly he lets wander back to the cabin. And that made me wonder...is it possible that Shelly was the one who was supposed to come out of nowhere to help Chris in the barn originally? That they'd already shot the bit with the biker guy, Ali getting chopped to pieces and that would be the last we'd see of them. And it turns out that Stoner Girl was wrong about Shelly being completely dead ("I'm getting better") and he struggles over to help.
    But someone went "Wow, we're going to catch shit for these African American characters..." and they made the change hoping people wouldn't wonder how Ali lived through that chopping to try to be the hero?

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  5. Awesome podcast you guys - with all due love and respect to the other podcast(er)s, Patrick and my drowned brother from another vengeful mother, Mike's franchise F'ings are my favourite part of SMM and I was super excited when I saw the Friday the 13th 7-word reviews start rolling in from you two. I bailed on the franchise about halfway through last year, and didn't watch any of them this year, but your discussion has resparked my affection for the series. I'm kinda glad you waited until the very end of SMM or I would probably be ordering that over-priced blu-ray set as we speak!

    Mike, were you able to verify this time that there is a statue of a dog blowing a man in Part 3? :)

    I was glad to see some newfound love for Part 5 because for some reason that was one of my favourites growing up (my sister and I still occasionally say in our best hillbilly accents, "Junior, will you shut the fuck up?!") mostly because I found the broad daylight, not-Jason axing of the, um...differently-abled boy so damn disturbing. The "Final" Chapter has since become my favourite, but this one still holds a special (ed) place in my chocolate-stained heart.

    I don't know if I'll ever love the Friday the 13th franchise as much as I used to - even after watching and enjoying surprisingly most of the Halloween franchise this SMM I would still put Nightmare on Elm Street at the top of my list - but you've convinced me not to swear off these movies for good and I'll definitely return to Crystal Lake next year when Scary Movie Month once again rises from it's 11-month slumber to slaughter all of my free time.

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  6. Oh my God, I forgot all about the dog blowing a man.

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  7. The first time I saw Friday the 13th Parts 1-3 was when they played around 1984/5 on the USA Saturday Night Movie. I remember looking in the TV Guide and seeing that the next installment would be playing that coming Sat night and getting excited. I was so little I didn't know about sequels. I just thought it was the next installment, like Star Wars.

    Patrick if you like part 4, you must have flipped for the Adam Green/Joe Lynch commentary on the special edition dvd/blu ray. I really like part 4 too, mostly because of Tommy Jarvis. I think many of us could see ourselves as the horror/special FX kid who could possibly stop Jason. :)

    Part 5 like most everyone is sleezy and I'm not a fan, though there are still parts that I like 'cause it is bat shit crazy. There is also a radio show/youtube channel called Deadpit that is basically 3 hillbillies from Eastern Kentucky who swear that part 5 plays like a documentary to them and so they think that is the best one. Not me though.

    Part 6 is my absolute favorite. I first saw it on Viewer's Choice because it was $1.99 on Friday the 13th! Part of the reason why I love it so much is because I think it's the only film in the series that looks like a real film with production value. I think the characters are great. One of my favorite moments is when the red head is walking out of the cabin and Jason is stalking her from the outside window.

    Part 7 and 8 I saw in the theater with my sister, who is deeply religious so that was fun. LOL.

    Jason Goes to Hell I really liked, even if it is a remake of the Hidden. I remember telling my friends in 1993 to go see it and they thought I was nuts. This, as well as True Romance, were two releases from that year that came to VHS in an unrated form. Yay for film fans!

    Jason X was supposed to be darker, ala Blade Runner and Aliens but the director saw it as a Star Trek film so the script was rewritten by others. Todd Farmer stayed on the film to make sure his contributions didn't entirely go out the window.

    Todd actually lives in my town and his office is about 15 minutes from where I live. He is one of the nicest guys in the horror community, and if it wasn't for Drive Angry's box office failure, I'm sure we would have seen another film of his get off the ground sooner.

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    1. I still haven't heard the Green/Lynch commentary! I'm dying to, but I don't own that version. I still have my original issue DVD.

      Totally agreed on Part 6 being the most like a "real" movie -- it's the best directed movie in the series (though I do like what Joseph Zito does in Part IV).

      And good call on Jason Goes to Hell. One of the (many) reasons I don't want to buy the new Blu-ray set is because it doesn't include the unrated cut of that movie.

      I really like Todd Farmer. He writes good genre stuff. Hope he gets to write more soon.

      Thanks for all of your comments, Cameron!

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  8. I think it's great that Patrick wondered if there'd be an African American Van Helsing in this series, and then low and behold, Creighton Duke comes into the series (for one film). Just make sure you don't give him one of your fingers.

    I agree with Patrick too about Crystal Lake Memories. Never Sleep Again is far better. Sure, New Line was in the Freddy business to make money but at least in the telling of their story, there was more layers to their decisions than the people behind the Friday series.

    Nightmare is my favorite horror series and a reissue of Never Sleep Again comes out on blu ray in January.

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  9. Great show guys. Good to hear Mike again.

    I watched all the Fridays last year in SMM and in listening to this episode I could hardly remember any of the details, specificaaly between 3 and 7, they all seem to just meld into one for me.

    The biggest disapointments seem to come from Jason Goes to Hell....that doesnt feature Jason, and Jason Takes Manhatten...that doesnt feature Manhatten. Wonder what gener opinion would be if they were called Demon Posession-y Thingy Goes to Hell and Jason Leaves Crystal Lake, respectively. ..... probably nothing, but its a thought.

    Heres to SMM 4! Kicking dick all over 3 (Im not full of self loathing and regret!)

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  10. Great show guys! The Haunting was my Mirrors this year. Speaking of which, is the song Mirrors by Justin Timberlake actually about a DVD he meant to watch but didn't have the time to?

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  11. I always loved Shelley's death in Part III. If you watch it, Shelley wanders into the barn with his mask, then a few minutes later Jason shows up with the hockey mask and gets his spear gun kill. Then he goes into the house and gets the handstand kill and the pregnant kill. THEN the hippies wander into the house to look for everyone else and make their popcorn, and then Shelley finally shows up with his throat cut. So Shelley, poor Shelley, has been wandering around for a good 15 minutes with his throat cut open. Guy can't catch a break.

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  12. Question that may be misplaced... when you trash about a "cannon", is that synonymous with chronology/mythology? Or is it a way of taking about the entries that "count"? If it is the entries that "count", are they defined by the consumers or the creators?

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    1. I think I was referring more to the ones that "count" in this instance, but I also fully admit that it's a label only I am applying -- as in "to me, the first eight movies are the canon." People may have totally different ideas as to what the canon is. In the majority of instances, I think it's the kind of thing that's decided my the audience -- that we all come to a kind of tacit agreement as to what the canon is.

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  13. Part six has always been my favorite, in part because this is where Jason clearly a zombie, thus it's more rational that he is unkillable. However, after listening to your podcast (which I discovered midway through making my way through the F13 series), I watched part five with new interest and was blown away by its insanity. Thanks for alerting me to the craziness!

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  14. I'm relistening to this and have something to share with you guys!

    So this episode was where I first heard about Ari Lehman's First Jason (and then ran to his website and watched his clips). I was working for a French publication, so I instantly contacted him and asked for an interview. Which I got! We spent close to 2 pretty cool hours on the phone, it lead to a really fun 6-pages (!) paper, and I sent him one copy of the magazine via mail. No response. I wrote to him to make sure he'd got it; nothing. Boo Ari, not cool!

    But anyhow, I'm glad this piece exists, and I definitely have to thank you guys for it!

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  15. It's a good day to listen to this oldie!

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